North Huntingdon woman was a whiz with numbers
Marion Campbell was a whiz with numbers. “She could total a column of numbers so easily, so she did the book work and managed the finances for the family’s business, Campbell’s Service Center,” said her daughter, Diane Rhodes of North Huntingdon. “She was very devoted to the business. That was...
With Wolf’s signature, Sunday hunting coming to Pa. in 2020
Pennsylvania hunters who clamored for a Saturday start to firearms deer season now have another reason to celebrate — Sunday hunting in 2020. Gov. Tom Wolf signed Senate Bill 147, lifting the ban on Sunday hunting, on Wednesday. The law allows hunting on three Sundays: one during rifle deer season,...
Scottdale man survived 90 combat bombing missions in two wars
John Kalish flew so many combat missions in World War II that he reached the maximum number allowed. Still in flight school on D-Day, Mr. Kalish was a navigator on 35 missions in the Mediterranean theater in 1944 and 1945. He got called back to active duty during the Korean...
Chemical weapons watchdog adds Novichok to banned list
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Member states of the global chemical weapons watchdog agreed Wednesday to update their list of banned substances for the first time by adding the nerve agent used in the attempted assassination last year of a former Russian double agent. The decision to add Novichok nerve agents...
5 dead, 3 hurt in ‘devastating’ Minneapolis high-rise fire
MINNEAPOLIS — A fire swept through a Minneapolis high-rise apartment building early Wednesday, killing five people and sending three others to the hospital, officials said. There was no immediate indication what caused the blaze in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, located in a part of Minneapolis called Little Mogadishu for the many...
Jimmy Carter out of hospital after treatment for brain bleed
ATLANTA — Former President Jimmy Carter has been released from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after recovering from surgery to relieve pressure on his brain caused by bleeding from a fall. Carter Center spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said Wednesday that the Carters “look forward to enjoying Thanksgiving at home in Plains,...
U.S. Marshals: Marine deserter charged in murder case captured
ROANOKE, Va. — A Marine deserter wanted in the fatal shooting of his mother’s boyfriend was captured Wednesday after a weekslong, multistate search that had schools and neighborhoods on alert in Roanoke, Virginia. Michael Alexander Brown, 22, was safely taken into custody Wednesday morning in Franklin County, U.S. Marshals Service...
Plant explosion in Texas blows windows from homes miles away
PORT NECHES, Texas — Two massive explosions 13 hours apart tore through a Texas chemical plant Wednesday, and one left three workers injured. The blasts blew out windows and doors of nearby homes and prompted a mandatory evacuation of a 4-mile (seven-kilometer) radius from the plant in Port Neches in...
Spanish police tow cocaine-filled submarine to port
MADRID — Spanish police Tuesday managed to tow a sunken submarine believed to be carrying tons of cocaine into a northwestern port and began preparations to extract its cargo. Police were hoping to crane-lift the 65-foot submarine onto the dock at Port of Aldán so that they could get inside...
Miami man shoots, kills robber who pointed AK-47 in his faceVideo
Donovan Stewart said he didn’t like it when a would-be robber shoved an AK-47 rifle in his face. The 60-year-old Miami man said he had to think quickly after someone broke into his van while he was sleeping. His 11-year-old son and girlfriend were also in the van at the...
White House budget official: Trump was personally ‘directing’ freeze on U.S. military aid to UkraineVideo
A career official in the White House budget office told impeachment investigators earlier this month that President Donald Trump was personally “directing” the alleged quid pro quo freeze on nearly $400 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine, according to a transcript of his closed-door deposition released Tuesday. Mark Sandy,...
New Jersey hospital gives patient wrong kidney during transplantVideo
Classic mixup. A hospital in New Jersey gave a kidney to the wrong patient during a transplant last week. Luckily, it appears that the mistake didn’t have tragic results. According to Philadelphia’s ABC-affiliate WPVI-TV, officials at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital said the 51-year-old patient’s kidney transplant was successful...
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin pardons man in child sexual abuse case
LOUISVILLE — Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin has pardoned a man serving life in prison for sexually abusing his 6-year-old stepdaughter. News outlets report Bevin issued the pardon Friday, saying that Paul Donel Hurt was wrongly convicted of first-degree sexual abuse and sodomy in Louisville in 2001. Hurt’s accuser recanted her...
New York City lawmakers vote to ban flavored vaping products
NEW YORK — New York City lawmakers voted Tuesday to ban flavored electronic cigarettes after a lawsuit halted a statewide ban. “We are acting to protect our kids by banning the e-cigarette flavors that have been hooking them for years,” Democratic City Council member Mark Levine said before the Council...
In Pa. and across the country, overdoses, suicides, alcoholism are leading Americans to earlier deaths
After nearly six decades of increasing life expectancy, U.S. average lifetimes have been declining since 2014, according to a bleak new report published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Drug overdoses — mainly opioids — suicides, alcoholic liver disease and conditions related to substance use disorder are...
Pa. lawmakers push to ban hand-held cellphone use while driving
A bill to ban certain uses of cellphones by Pennsylvania drivers has advanced in Harrisburg, and its sponsor believes motorists’ confusion about laws when they cross state borders — something they will be doing frequently of over Thanksgiving — is an argument for approval. State Rep. Rosemary Brown, a Monroe...
‘Tis the season: Pa. alcohol sales spike as holidays approach
It’s the holiday season, and everyone is getting into the spirit — or at the very least, into the spirits store. November and December are far and away the busiest times of the year at Pennsylvania’s Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores. The top single sales day in each of...
Philadelphia’s voting machines challenged in federal court
HARRISBURG — A federal court is being asked to force Pennsylvania to rescind its certification of a voting machine newly purchased by Philadelphia and at least two other counties in the state ahead of 2020’s presidential election. Former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and several supporters filed court papers...
First lady Melania Trump draws boos at Baltimore youth summit on opioid awarenessVideo
BALTIMORE — First lady Melania Trump drew a mixed reception at a Baltimore youth summit on opioid awareness, where she told a crowd that “drugs will only slow you down.” “I know each of you has hopes and dreams for the future, whether it’s college, joining the military or playing...
Supreme Court allows Penn State professor’s defamation suit against National ReviewVideo
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court refused on Monday to shield two conservative writers from being sued for defamation by a climate-change expert whom they accused of having “molested and tortured data in the service of politicized science.” Over a dissent by Justice Samuel A. Alito, the high court cleared the...
Greensburg machinist loved golfing, children
Denise Engler says her father, John Raynor, never got tired of children. “He’d take off work for Halloween so he could give out candy,” said Engler, a Greensburg resident. “If there was a holiday dinner coming up, he’d always ask, ‘Are there kids coming?’ He loved children and went out...
Trump tells impeachment jokes before pardoning turkeyVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump couldn’t resist riffing on the House impeachment inquiry Tuesday as he continued the tradition of pardoning a Thanksgiving turkey, generating holiday-season laughter at the expense of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, one of his chief antagonists in Congress. Trump joked that the pair...
House Judiciary Committee schedules impeachment hearing for Dec. 4Video
WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee is set to take over the impeachment probe of President Donald Trump next week, scheduling a Dec. 4 hearing on the question of “high crimes and misdemeanors” set out in the Constitution. The opening hearing will feature legal experts who will examine the constitutional...
Senate Democrats propose sweeping data privacy bill
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats are proposing a broad federal data privacy law that would allow people to see what information companies have collected on them and demand that it be deleted. But the bill is likely to face bipartisan challenges in the Republican-controlled Senate. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington is...
More clues point to chemical compound in U.S. vaping illnessesVideo
NEW YORK — Health officials said Tuesday they have more evidence that a certain chemical compound is a culprit in a national outbreak of vaping illnesses. Researchers analyzed black market vaping cartridges seized in Minnesota during the outbreak this year, and vaping liquid seized in that state last year. The...
